Trade leveraging policy to push exports on anvil

Our Economy Bureau
03 September 2004

New Delhi: A day after doling out sops to exporters, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath today said that the government would bring out a trade leveraging policy apart from a special package for textiles, tea and coffee sectors to further push up exports.

"India is one of the few countries in the world which will have incremental growth in its human skill resources in the coming years. We have never leveraged trade. I am going to work on trade leveraging policy. We have to see trade not only as a foreign exchange earner but also as a net employment generator," Nath said at a FICCI seminar on the foreign trade policy.

Since the multi-fibre agreement is coming to an end in 2005, the minister said that the government would look at the entire textile chain and come out with a textile policy.

Nath said that his ministry would also organise a seminar on textiles in the next one month to discuss issues emerging in the post quota regime.

Stating that the days of government subsidising inefficiency were over, Nath said that the industry would have to match the strength of its competitors in order to achieve a quantum jump in its exports.

He said issues like the inverted duty structure needed to provide a level playing field to the domestic industry particularly under regional and bilateral agreement would be addressed soon.